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Justice For Han: The Unshakable Allure Of The Most Compelling ‘Fast & Furious’ Character

Travis Bean

At the end of Fast & Furious 6, all eyes are on the main character: Dominic Toretto. It’s Dom who hangs back on the airplane to apprehend Owen Shaw; it’s Dom whose car flips a dozen times as he drives off the aircraft; it’s Dom who walks down the middle of a freakin’ flaming runway like it’s nothing as he rejoins his family. Played by Vin Diesel—the franchise’s leading man since the very beginning—Dom has come to represent the perseverance, the defiance, the heart of the entire Fast & Furious universe.

And off to the side stands Han. Broken. Shattered. Ruined. Lost in a world that is now completely foreign to him.

Minutes earlier the love of Han’s life, Gisele, had sacrificed herself as one of Shaw’s henchmen pulled a gun on Han. Hanging desperately onto Han’s grip so she wouldn’t fall to her death, Gisele lets go in order to take out Han’s soon-to-be killer. And Han had to watch her plummet to her demise.

In what sounds like an astounding ending to a storied romance on anything but in the Fast & Furious universe. For a franchise that has brazenly latched onto the family motif (sometimes to a comical degree) and pounded Dom and Letty’s romance into our heads, it seems very little attention was ever paid to Han and Gisele’s short time together as a couple. They had flirted, teased, kissed, dated, and traveled the world together. Hell, they were even planning a new life in Tokyo—all before their plans were cut short by the powers that be.

On the one hand, it seems unfair. Why cut off Han and Gisele’s romance like that? For a franchise that’s all about family and new beginnings, their relationship was practically fodder for the Fast & Furious cinematic universe. So why focus on Dom in that moment? Don’t we care about Han? Why not grieve for the man who just lost the love of his life?

But then’s Han, right? Dominic Toretto steals the show from moment to moment, scene to scene, movie to movie because he’s the face of the entire franchise. Dom forcibly inserts himself into just about every situation because he is the ever-knowing fatherly figure of the group. Whenever you’re lost? Dom is there with the answer.

That’s not Han’s bag, though. Han is cool, collected, methodical. While Dom waltzes into any situation and commands the room, Han quietly sits back and evaluates. We love Dom because he completely lets us into his psyche and wears his heart on his sleeve—but we also love Han because he doesn’t do any of that. We are mystified by him. Curious about him. Anxious to break through that muted, peaceful stature. Taken by his utterly unshakable allure.

That’s really been the case all along, which is why it might not feel like Han had much of a storyline before his “demise.”

But when you take his entire oeuvre into account...the man has a story for the ages.

We first met Han in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo—oh wait, that’s not even right. Because Han’s story actually started way back in Justin Lin’s Better Luck Tomorrow, a 2002 movie that sees a much angrier, violent side of Han. Committing petty crimes and consumed with personal drama, this version of Han is much less idealistic than the Han we’ll grow to know and love.

So, back to The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo—crap, no. Because that movie actually takes place in the “future” of the Fast & Furious universe. The third film of the franchise may have come out in 2006, but chronologically it takes place after the fourth, fifth and sixth movies of the Fast & Furious universe.

OK: so in the fourth movie, Fast & Furious, Han is only seen at the very beginning. But he and Dom share a moment about the disbanding of Han’s crew. And then we get an important, crucial detail about Han: he wants to go to Tokyo.

This moment is obviously inserted to make Han’s presence in Tokyo Drift make sense. But then we still had two more movies before Han actually made the trek to Japan. In the meantime, he had to become part of the Fast & Furious family. He had to help thwart international terrorists. He had to find the love of his life—and then lose her. Han’s entire world had to be completely upended before he made his way to Tokyo in the third Fast & Furious movie...where he would be “murdered” by Deckard Shaw.

When you consider the entire scope of Han’s journey, it isn’t any less ambitious or compelling than Dom’s, than Letty’s, than Brian’s story—and it’s certainly more intriguing than either Roman or Tej’s plot. After years of circling around Tokyo, Han was finally ready to move there because he had someone in his corner. But after Gisele’s death, he then had to travel to Japan without her—as nothing but a vessel of a man with no idea how to move forward.

Prior to the trailer for Fast & Furious 9, Han’s story felt very...unresolved. We could not possibly fathom the pain and frustration of losing Gisele. Why even go to Tokyo after her death? To prove to himself that he could do it? As a chance for a new beginning? As a chance to find his own family? What man had taken the place of the calm, quiet, stoic Han who could always be found munching on a bag of chips?

And what happened after Han supposedly died? Why didn’t he find Dom and the rest of the family immediately? How must Han feel about the Fast crew working with the man who tried to kill him? The man whose brother effectively killed Gisele?

So many questions about the past, so many intriguing stories for the future, and absolutely zero clues to how this man is still alive—yeah, Han is definitely back. And just like his every other moment in the Fast & Furious series, he silently strolled in at the very end of the Fast & Furious 9 trailer like it was Sunday brunch. We’re all excited about Han because he never gave us too much to chew on—and now we have an entire five-course meal to enjoy because of it.

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I host a podcast called Watching the Throne: A Lyrical Analysis of Kanye West. I run the Colossus Movie Club, where I make movie recommendations each week. I've covered

I host a podcast called Watching the Throne: A Lyrical Analysis of Kanye West. I run the Colossus Movie Club, where I make movie recommendations each week. I've covered several film festivals, including Toronto and Sundance.